which you may not recognize as the lace cowl. That's because once I finished it, I discovered that it was far to big around, so I frogged it, re-did it's chart, and am starting again.

Then I stuffed another bag in the car in which I had put the Wolf Hoodie, and two different sock projects. A girl has to have options.

Once all this stuff was loaded (oh, yeah, and a bag of clothes and such), I ran away from home ... to Whichy's house.

I picked her up at work, took her to her parents' house, where we enjoyed a lovely dinner, and then headed toward "home" via the grocery store where we bought some sinfully good ice cream. In the morning, I got to sleep in. I was treated to a very tasty smoothie for breakfast, and introduced to a new temptation that I almost wish I didn't know about. Okay, that's not fair... others have introduced me to this temptation before, but somehow having so many samples to try pushed me right over the edge. That consumed lots of time as I browsed the myriad options for exquisite smells. I sniffed "Imps" and made lists and joined the Ravelry of Scents, and even wound up with a winning bid on e-bay.

It did not, however, stop me from employing my wheel. First thing I did was Navajo Ply some stuff I'd spun up the last time I spent a weekend with Whichy spinning. I got this wee thing from the very last bit I'd spun

and this from singles that had been waiting patiently on its bobbin

(which now looks like this).

We watched a great video by Abby Franqumont on drafting (during which I learned a lot), and I started to spin something else in an attempt to use what I'd just learned.

My wheel was not cooperative. Sure, it would let me ply some stuff, but when I started spinning -- well -- lets just say I wound up fighting my wheel every step of the way. Whichy, generous soul that she is, took a break from her own spinning to let me try her wheel...

And I grabbed up some fiber I'd gotten from DyakCraft's (formerly Grafton Fiber Arts) ColorWays Club last year, and spun up two full bobbins of this

And then plied it up

Until it looked a lot like this

Which ultimately looks like this:

We also made this:

That, my friends is some seriously yummy mushroom soup. We started mushrooms, and leeks, and mushrooms, and scallions, and mushrooms, and garlic, and mushrooms, and onions, and cream, and thyme and butter, and oh, yeah, mushrooms. There was cleaning and chopping and sauteing and stirring.... and then savoring.

I drove home today, and when I started this post, I was ensconced in my knitting chair surrounded by family I stayed away from long enough to miss, watching Castle......

You are spinning now! Awesome. Next time you head out east, pack up your wheel and we can spend the day on my porch swapping stories and spinning. And, you can make me some mushroom soup. That stuff looked amazing!